Two hundred years ago, the captain of a plague-ravaged spaceship set course for deep space. Elliot Stoll, an ambitious pilot, with a ship equipped with a hyperspace Tangle drive, is assigned to secure the derelict Iredoi, only to find salvager Kass Tyczkowski has reached it first. Arguments about authority and legitimate salvage are interrupted by an attack by rival salvagers, which ends with Kass rescuing Elliot from his destroyed ship, and jumping away with the Iredoi in tow, back to his home base -- the Tumble.
Elliot soon learns he’s landed in the middle of a family feud, but now the stakes are higher than the salvage value of an old derelict. A flotilla of pirate ships is heading for the Tumble to snatch the Iredoi, and whatever secrets it holds about the deadly virus that wiped out its crew.
Kass’s mother Dominika, the boss of the salvage company and the station, assigns Kass to guard Elliot, telling him if he’s going to bring strays home, he has to take care of them. Even if it means the stray has to sleep in his quarters. Despite the stark differences between the button-down and disciplined Elliot and the scofflaw, hedonistic Kass, they make a good team as they prepare for a battle, explore the derelict Iredoi, and then give in to the intense attraction they’ve come to feel for each other.
After exploring the Iredoi, Elliot becomes determined to destroy it to keep it from being taken by the pirates. But Kass has his orders too, and Elliot knows his work is cut out for him if he wants to persuade Kass to defy his mother and help Elliot to do the right thing.
Kass turned his chair to see Mack helping Elliot Stoll out of the airlock, a hand under his elbow as Elliot wobbled, almost falling.
Oh no, he’s hot. Damn but he was a snack, and no mistake, his form fitting flight suit leaving little to the imagination. He had a military buzz cut, and his skin was a few shades lighter than Mack’s. He almost stumbled over the discarded space suits.
“You okay there, Navy?” Kass asked.
“I’m fine.” His voice belied it, being very shaky. An American accent. Mack helped him to sit in a seat by a console and came back to his own seat, to start running more diagnostics. He was giving Kass a dubious look.
“Where are we?” Elliot asked. “Did we get away from that pirate?”
Kass grimaced. He didn’t like to think of Grigory as being something as cool as a pirate.
“We’re safe,” Kass said. “We jumped right after we picked you up.”
“Thank you. You didn’t have to do that.”
Kass thought back to the little chihuahua of a ship taking on Grigory’s rottweiler. Yeah he did have to do that. “No sweat, Navy. I always like to collect souvenirs.”
Mack leaned in close to Kass. “You know Dom will be furious when we show up with him.”
Elliot might have heard, he might not, but he apparently had his own ideas about what to do with him.
“You need to set a course back to Earth,” he said.
“Sorry, Navy, that is definitely not in our flight plan.”
“Look, Mr. ... What is your last name anyway?”
“Tyczkowski,” Kass said. “Kasimir Tyczkowski. This is Mackenzi Ross.”
“Mr. Ross, Mr. Tyczkowski,” Stoll said. Kass winced. He said it more like tuh-scows-ki.
“Titch-kowski,” he corrected.
“Tisk-owski.”
“Call me Kass, before I get ethnically offended.”
“Agreed, if you stop calling me Navy.”
Kass chuckled. “Deal. I can’t take you back to Earth. There’s no way I’m jumping there with my salvage, only for the military to impound it. We’ve got to take you back to our base. My boss will decide what to do about you.”
“Am I your prisoner then?”
“Oh don’t be so dramatic.”
Elliot glared at him.
“Dom is not gonna like it,” Mack said, quietly, in a sing-song voice. His voice went more serious then. “Anti-tangle field is down. Setting new target.”
“Anti-tangle field?” Elliot asked. He came over and leaned on the back of Kass’s seat.
“Our base is protected by one,” Kass said. “Disrupts the wormholes. When it’s on, nothing can get close.”
“I know what they do,” Elliot said, sounding irritated. “But I didn’t expect a scrap merchant to have a technology that’s still considered experimental and that most people can’t get working.”
“We have a really good engineer,” Kass said, winking at Mack, who grinned back, but then frowned.
“Ship dropping out of wormhole,” Mack said, then he relaxed. “It’s the Marcelina.”
A hail came through a second later, and Stasia’s face popped up on the screen, Bibi at her side at a console the mirror to the one he and Mack sat at.
“Hey, Kass, Mack,” Stasia said. “You found it then.” She looked a tad miffed. She’d hoped to find it first.
“We found it. And had a little meeting with Grigory.”
“That fucker? Should have known the old man would be looking for this prize.” She leaned closer, frowning. “Ah, Kass, I don’t want to alarm you, but there’s a strange man standing right behind you.”
“Oh he’s not that strange.” He looked up at Elliot, winked and turned back to the screen.
“You usually wait until you’re off work before you start picking up guys,” she said. “What the hell?”
“I’m not explaining it all twice. We’re ready to jump. I’ll see you back home.”
“Looking forward to the story. See you there.” She nodded at his side. “Mack.”
“Stasia.”
The screen went dark. “Who is that woman?” Elliot asked. “Is she trustworthy?”
“She’s my twin sister,” Kass said.
After a moment’s thought, Elliot spoke again. “My question stands.”
“Hey, watch it, flyboy,” Mack said.
Elliot scowled at him. “I thought we had a deal about the stupid nicknames, Mr. Ross.”
“You have no deal with me,” Mack said. “And you can pronounce my name just fine. Also, not going to lie, I’m liking the mister.”
“Whatever you’re called,” Kass said, “sit down and strap in. Jumping in ten seconds.”
Elliot didn’t look happy, but he obeyed, going back to his seat and strapping in. “Where exactly are we jumping to?”
Mack initiated the jump, and it was so short it was done in barely two seconds.
“To the Tumble,” Kass replied, two seconds and a million kilometers later. “To the Tumble.”
